Comdex targets the enterprise

Storage, wireless, and microprocessor technologies will occupy the spotlight at Comdex this week in Las Vegas as Microsoft, Dell, Gateway, AMD, Hewlett-Packard, and Iomega unveil a host of new products.

At the same time, conference organizers are attempting to leave behind Comdex’s consumer and dot-com leanings and redefine the show as an enterprise gathering.

Reflecting Comdex’s enterprise push, AT&T Wireless will make its first appearance on the list of exhibitors. The company will host partners Cisco Systems, HP, and IBM in its booth to demonstrate jointly developed voice and data technologies and a number of enterprise applications.

“We are trying to get our voice-service customers to become data customers, too,” said Ritch Blasi, an AT&T Wireless representative.

AT&T Wireless is not the only fresh face. After a six-year hiatus, Dell will use the conference to showcase new offerings from its services business, Dell Services.

On the chip front, AMD is expected to unveil three new models in the Opteron processor family as part of AMD’s battle with server rivals Intel and Sun.

AMD’s 148, 248, and 848 will join other server and workstation processors in the Opteron lineup. According to AMD, the 248 model is the world’s highest-performing 32-bit processor for two-way servers as measured by industry-standard benchmarks. The chip’s onboard memory controllers will now support DDR-1 (Double Data Rate) SDRAM memory at 400MHz; older Opteron chips support only PC2700 memory.

Iomega and Gateway are among the storage companies that will use Comdex to launch new products.

Iomega will introduce the Rev Drive, a 35GB portable storage product based on Iomega’s own RRD (Removable Rigid Disk) technology. The company claims RRD is a viable and less-costly alternative to tape technologies, including DDS (Digital Data Storage), DAT-72, VXA, AIT-1 (Advanced Intelligent Tape), DLT (Digital Linear Tape), and DLT VS80 used in tape libraries for backups.

Expected to cost approximately $49, the portable disks are more durable than tape, according to Iomega. RRD is expected to have a native maximum transfer rate of 22MBps, which is significantly faster than tape’s 3MBps average transfer rate.

Iomega has already attracted one OEM for RRD, Germany-based BDT. The company will develop tape-replacement autoloader products based on RRD next year. Iomega is already working on a new RRD drive that will have a storage capacity of 70GB.

Meanwhile, Gateway will introduce the Gateway 840, a new Serial ATA-based storage device, and the Gateway 860 NAS. The company reports the 840 device will cost approximately $6,000 for 2TB and includes iSCSI functionality. Starting at approximately $3,000, the 860 NAS will run Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 and will scale to 1.2TB of capacity.

Gateway will also enter the SAN market by reselling Hitachi Data System’s Thunder 9500 product line.

These announcements build on Gateway’s August announcement that it would become a serious storage vendor and shed its consumer-company image.

Also making storage news is newcomer Kashya. The startup will introduce KBX4000, a data-protection appliance intended to reduce the cost of performing bidirectional, long-distance data replication, common in disaster-recovery scenarios. Connecting to both Fibre Channel SANs and IP networks, the appliance can be configured with varying levels of protection.

Breece Hill and its partner Avail Solutions will introduce a storage and retrieval architecture for SMBs (small to midsize businesses) called Information Storage and Retrieval Architecture. Combining Avail’s data-protection software with Breece’s tape autoloaders and tape libraries, SMBs

are presented with a cost-effective disk-to-disk-to-tape solution, Breece said.

And StorServer will use the show to release three new K Series Backup Appliance models that contain Qualstar’s RLS-Series rack-mounted libraries. According to Ellen Rome, vice president of marketing at StorServer, by integrating the tape libraries with the backup appliance, enterprises can save space in the datacenter. StorServer also offers appliances that come equipped with tape libraries from vendors SpectraLogic and Overland Storage.

HP will attempt to breathe new life into the desktop market by unveiling Troy, a desktop that features integrated telephony technology co-developed with Microsoft. Troy will include seamless audio- and videoconferencing in one unit.

HP reports two versions of Troy are planned. One will tie into a company’s PBX system and the other will use VoIP (voice over IP).

Both systems will include a unified inbox for voice mail, e-mail, and IM on the PC. For voice mail, the system informs the user who called, when they called, and the length of the message.

For the first time, Comdex will face direct competition this week in Las Vegas. Jupitermedia will launch the Computer Digital Expo (cdXpo) conference at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, featuring keynote speakers from IBM and HP. It hopes to draw 6,000 visitors, a tenth of the expected Comdex attendance.

“People want smaller, more focused events,” said Alan Meckler, Jupitermedia’s chairman and CEO.